WILKES-BARRE - When the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins face the Hershey Bears in the AHL Outdoor Classic on Sunday evening, it will be kind of a big deal.

Close to 17,000 fans are expected to fill Hersheypark Stadium. There will be pomp and pageantry and commemorative T-shirts. For many players, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play pro hockey outdoors.

Forgive Wyoming Seminary graduate Martin Moucha if he's not impressed. He plays a game like that a couple of times a month.

Moucha works in civil engineering for Quad 3 Group in Wilkes-Barre by day and plays for the Williamsport Outlaws of the Federal Hockey League at night. The Outlaws are playing all 30 of their home games this season outdoors at Bowman Field.

"It took me a couple of games to get used to it," said Moucha, who played his college hockey at Norwich University, has 14 career ECHL games with Elmira and Wheeling to his credit and played an exhibition game for the Penguins when he was on the team's training camp roster in 2011.

Once he got used to playing outdoors, it was full speed ahead for Moucha. He ranks in the top 20 in the FHL in scoring with 18 goals, 39 points and a plus-23 rating in 38 games. The Outlaws seem to enjoy their home-ice advantage too, posting an 18-4-2 record at Bowman Field, where they routinely draw more than 1,000 fans.

Moucha is the perfect person, then, to describe the differences between indoor and outdoor hockey that the Penguins and Bears will be dealing with Sunday.

The biggest difference, he said, is the ice conditions.

"It's kind of weather dependent," Moucha said. "If it's sunny, it could be slushy or slower. In an arena, it's always at a constant temperature and it's always perfect."

The National Weather Service is forecasting a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature of 39 degrees Sunday, which is good news for the Penguins and Bears. Still, Moucha said, the team that spends the least amount of time in the defensive zone, where a bad bounce off bumpy ice can lead to disaster, will have an advantage.

"One bad hop and it's 1-0," he said. "Another bad hop and it's 2-0."

The other differences between indoor and outdoor hockey make less of an impact on actual game play.

Some players have complained about glare during daytime outdoor games, and Moucha said he had a headache after his first morning practice at Bowman Field, but the 5 p.m. start Sunday should mitigate that.

"I think it's just an excuse to wear the eye black," said Penguins defenseman Philip Samuelsson, who played for Boston College in a game at Fenway Park in 2010.

Defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who played two games at Fenway during his Boston College days, said wind can be a factor, not with puck movement but with skating. In previous NHL outdoor games, teams have switched ends at the midpoint of the second period to even out the wind effect.

"When people have watched hockey in arenas for a long time, they sometimes see us and say, 'Those guys are slow,'" Moucha said. "Well, sometimes we're skating into a 40 mph wind."

Penguins forward Dominik Uher, who played a game at a minor-league baseball park during his junior hockey days in Spokane, Wash., had an interesting take on the biggest difference between the indoor and outdoor game.

"It just feels weird because around the boards, you don't see people," he said. "They're far away from the boards."

The Penguins aren't scheduled to have a practice at Hersheypark Stadium the day before the game, so they'll have to get used to the differences during their morning skate there Sunday.

"Morning skate is going to be huge to get the feel of the ice," defenseman Alex Grant said. "I'm looking forward to it."

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